Numerical investigation of the temperature field of a metal plate during high-frequency induction heat forming

Abstract

High-frequency induction heat forming is a flexible metal plate forming technique using non-uniform thermal stress to shape a metal plate without tools and external forces. To accurately control the deformation of a metal plate, the study of temperature field is critical. In this article, a three-dimensional finite simulation has been carried out accounting for temperature-dependent thermal properties, and the numerical simulation results are experimentally validated. The effects of the process parameters on the temperature distribution are analysed. Through defining a dimensionless temperature T* and a special Y-coordinate Y*, similarity of temperature field with the different thickness is studied. The numerical results show that the temperature distributions in the Y′ direction are similar in the different thickness, which is helpful for the establishment of an analytical model of temperature distribution and analysis of the strain field of the different thickness in the next work.